


As You Do

by deplore



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Disgusting., M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 21:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10290386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deplore/pseuds/deplore
Summary: Modern day high school AU. Leo expects nothing from the varsity lacrosse jock who unexpectedly shows up to chess club one afternoon, except maybe to get gently hazed for being a chess nerd. Instead, he gets beaten at his own game.Ephraim comes back the next week. And also the following two weeks after that, but not the week following, and then he returns for the next meeting. “The lacrosse coach made us all see the school’s physical therapist,” Ephraim explains, rolling his eyes as he sits down across from Leo. “Even though I’ve never gotten seriously injured before. What a waste of time.”“Better safe than sorry,” Leo replies.“I should’ve figured you would say that. That’s exactly how you play chess too,” Ephraim tells him.Leo raises an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting I should be more daring?”“I’m suggesting there’s a reason I’ve got a 3-2 lead on you,” Ephraim replies, tone just a little too smug for Leo’s liking.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I can't explain how this happened in any rational form other than "Fire Emblem Heroes (and the voting gauntlet) made crossover pairings too freaking real ephrom is also good guys", but here's like 6.5k words of a pairing only like five people (including me) have ever entertained in a serious manner. Shout out to everybody who didn't stop me when I tweeted "leophraim HS AU where ephraim plays rugby but is also on the chess team partially bc he's good at chess and partially to make eyes at leo" "i need to stop" "i take it back. ephraim would not play rugby he'd play lax. lax bro ephraim" because as you can see, I didn't stop.

The chess club president takes one look at their newcomer’s varsity jacket and immediately says, “Leo, why don’t you help out Ephraim for the afternoon?” – because it’s no secret that he’s only president because of his seniority and relative skill at the game, not because he has a significant amount of leadership potential, and as such he prefers relegating tedious tasks like scheduling meetings and reserving classrooms to practice in down to underclassmen under the poorly veiled guise of ‘giving them experience’.

Tedious tasks apparently also now include teaching dumb jocks who’ve probably only shown up to have a laugh at their expense. Leo has never been less thrilled to be a freshman, but he keeps his mental commentary to himself and instead replies, “Fine, but I’m not promising to do any coddling.”

“Just teach him some basics,” the club president says, before hastily making his retreat to where the upperclassmen are setting up their boards.

Leo resists the urge to openly glare and instead turns his attention to the perfect specimen of the classic high school jock in front of him. He can only hope there are slightly more brains in that skull than the stereotype suggests there will be, but the two varsity letters leave him lacking optimism. “I didn’t catch your name,” he says, even though he actually did – but the president’s introduction had been awkward enough that Leo would rather redo it completely.

“Ephraim,” the jock says, offering his right hand out. “And you’re Leo, right? Nice to meet you.”

Unsurprisingly, when Leo reaches out to shake, he finds Ephraim’s grip just short of overbearing. “Just so you know, I wasn’t being modest when I said I wasn’t going to coddle,” Leo warns him after Ephraim lets go of his hand and takes a seat across from the board Leo’s set up.

“Actually, I know how to play chess,” Ephraim says.

Leo raises an eyebrow. “Knowing how the pieces move around the board is  _ not _ the same thing as knowing how to play chess,” he replies.

Ephraim’s smile doesn’t budge. “It seems like you’re not that into the idea of teaching either way, so why don’t we just play a round instead?” he asks.

“Well,” Leo begins, but then he realizes that he’ll recoup his lost practice time faster by quickly crushing Ephraim and hopefully also dissuading him from ever returning to the club, ever again. “Fine, let’s do it,” he says instead.

“Alright, you can play white, then,” Ephraim says. “Unless you prefer black?”

“White is fine with me,” Leo replies. Without thinking about it too hard, he picks up one of the center pawn pieces and moves it two squares forward. Mentally, he begins celebrating his victory in advance.

 

 

 

Almost an hour later, Leo inexplicably finds himself in check.

Leo frowns, biting the inside of his lip as he takes another look at the board. It’s not check, he realizes – it’s even worse than that. He’s in checkmate. Game over.

“Well, I think that’s it, isn’t it?” Ephraim says. “Good game, Leo.”

Leo doesn’t understand what just happened. This entire situation is just fundamentally wrong, he feels, especially because he’s fairly certain he didn’t play  _ badly _ . Maybe he was a bit lax at the beginning of the game, but by the end he’d been playing with full earnestness. Surely it was something else – maybe the way that Ephraim kept staring at him whenever it was Leo’s turn to make a move, with exactly the kind of expression that Leo would expect that the jock in some generic movie with a high school setting would give to whichever victim he plans on stuffing into a locker next. The mental warfare must’ve gotten to Leo more than he realized. Lack of ability, surely, could not be the reason that he’s faced now with a losing board.

_ It was just a fluke _ , Leo reasons with himself.  _ Also, I’m too tall to be shoved into a locker. Who even does that, for god’s sake _ .

“Are you alright?” Ephraim asks, breaking into Leo’s mental monologue.

“I was just checking the board again,” Leo replies quickly, even though he knows it’s not quite a believable excuse for his stunned silence. “But you’re right. That’s it.” A pause. “Good game to you as well. I guess you really do know how to play chess.”

“I was thinking about joining the club, actually,” Ephraim says. “You think I can make the cut?”

If that level of play is consistent, Leo’s pretty sure Ephraim’s skill is higher than their club’s average performance. On the other hand, if Ephraim keeps coming to club meetings, then Leo just  _ knows _ that the club president is going to keep sticking Leo with babysitting duties. “Maybe if you put in enough effort,” Leo replies, in the hopes that having to strain his brain too hard will scare Ephraim off.

“I guess I’ll give it a test run and see how things turn out, then,” Ephraim says.

“Alright,” Leo tells him. “You do that, then.”

And that, Leo hopes, will be that.

 

 

 

Except that Ephraim comes back the next week. And also the following two weeks after that, but not the week following, and then he returns for the next meeting. “The lacrosse coach made us all see the school’s physical therapist,” Ephraim explains, rolling his eyes as he sits down across from Leo. “Even though I’ve never gotten seriously injured before. What a waste of time.”

Leo wasn’t actually interested in knowing why Ephraim wasn’t around, and might’ve also been rather relieved to not have to sit through another hour of Ephraim constantly  _ looking _ at him. At this point, Leo’s pretty sure it’s actually better qualified as  _ ogling _ , though, or perhaps  _ predator eyeing its prey _ . It confuses Leo to no end, and yet he can’t quite bring himself to call out the untoward behavior, which only confuses Leo even more. “Better safe than sorry,” Leo replies.

“I should’ve figured you would say that. That’s exactly how you play chess too,” Ephraim tells him.

Leo raises an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting I should be more daring?”

“I’m suggesting there’s a reason I’ve got a 3-2 lead on you,” Ephraim replies, tone just a little too smug for Leo’s liking.

“So what if I find it difficult to anticipate what reckless tactic that you’re going to use next?” Leo asks, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “I’d call them  _ stupid _ instead, except they sometimes actually work.”

“And that’s what matters in the end,” Ephraim says. “Anyway, I was thinking…”

“Oh, that’s different. You,  _ thinking _ ,” Leo quips.

Ephraim just laughs, though. “Yeah, yeah, I do it on occasion. Going on, how about a friendly bet?” he asks. “Winner of each game gets to ask a favor of the other.”

“Deal,” Leo replies, because it immediately occurs to him that he can use the vague terms of ‘a favor’ to his advantage.

It doesn’t occur to him until after they’ve played and he’s lost that Ephraim can do exactly the same. Glumly, Leo inspects the board in the hopes that he can somehow teleport his trapped king to safety. Unfortunately, a well-placed rook keeps it firmly pinned to Leo’s back row.

“Checkmate,” Ephraim says.

“It is,” Leo admits, and hopes that somehow Ephraim has suffered short-term memory loss and forgot about their earlier deal.

Unfortunately, Leo has come to realize that Ephraim is not fundamentally lacking in brainpower, like his stereotype suggests he should be. “So about that favor,” Ephraim begins.

“If you suggest anything outrageous, I’m not doing it,” Leo immediately cuts in.

Ephraim continues on, unruffled, “The lacrosse pre-season is starting soon, we have a scrimmage next Friday after school. If you’re free, you should come watch.”

Leo narrows his eyes slightly. “All I have to do is show up and sit there?” he asks, wondering if this is some sort of bizarre prelude to him getting hazed by the entire lacrosse team.

“If you don’t like it, you can leave,” Ephraim replies.

Against his better judgement, Leo shrugs and says in a deliberately noncommittal tone, “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

Ephraim grins widely and Leo is utterly bewildered by how pleased he seems by Leo’s tiny concession. It’s sort of nice, actually, to think that he can make somebody look that happy just by promising to do something so easy as sit outside for an hour or so – but Leo shoos that thought right on out of his mind before it can take root. “Alright, I’ll keep an eye out for you,” Ephraim says.

“You do that, then,” Leo replies, before beginning to put away the board. He’s found that he’s been saying that a lot lately, and also that he thinks he mostly even means it.

 

 

 

Just in case, though, Leo recruits Niles and Odin to come watch with him. “I’m wary,” Leo tells them during their Thursday lunch period. “So if either of you are free, you should come with me.”

“Ah, men’s lacrosse,” Niles says. “That delightful sport where young men deftly handle their sticks and aggressively vie over balls. I do love watching full contact sports, so sure, why not?”

“Good,” Leo replies, ignoring the rest of Niles’ comment. “How about you, Odin?”

“Alas, this humble Odin Dark has a prior engagement... a date with the devil, you could say. A tryst with the forces that must not be named!” Odin declares, before adding, “That is, I’ve got a rehearsal, sorry. Why are you wary, though? I thought you two were on friendly terms.”

Leo stares down at his lunch, wondering how exactly he can explain his feelings. Finding that his meal isn’t lending him any suggestions, though, he looks up and asks, “What makes you think we’re on  _ friendly _ terms?”

“I mean, he says hi to you in the hallway pretty much every time you guys pass each other,” Odin points out. “I even saw him talking to you at your locker once, that’s pretty friendly to me.”

Leo frowns, thinking back over the last few weeks. “That was about chess club,” he says. “I think.”

“You think?” Niles asks, arching an eyebrow.

“I mean, he’s talked to me at my locker a few times now,” Leo says. Now that the topic’s been brought up, he realizes that Ephraim does occasionally lean up against the locker next to Leo’s to ask him about this or that page in the chess book Leo had lent him a few weeks back and insist that the techniques don’t make sense to him unless he physically sees each move on the board, or ask Leo what they’re doing in the club that week, or sometimes just ask him how his day is going.

Leo frowns even deeper. Ephraim’s behavior is becoming increasingly perplexing to him the harder that he thinks about it. If he had really wanted to shove Leo into a locker, then he’s clearly passed up plenty of prime opportunities, but Leo’s inability to place a motive to Ephraim’s actions is even more concerning than potential bullying. “Anyway, I don’t know anything about lacrosse, so I’ll be bored if I have to sit there by myself,” Leo declares, unartfully changing the subject.

“I’ll try my very best to make sure you’re not bored, then,” Niles says. “Or hazed, though you could better prevent that by getting rid of all your turtlenecks than keeping me around.”

“Hey, the turtlenecks are Leo’s style,” Odin interjects.

“I don’t think you should be lecturing anybody on style, anime T-shirt boy,” Niles replies coolly.

“Final Fantasy is  _ not _ anime,” Odin immediately says.

“If that’s settled,” Leo cuts in, “Niles, let’s meet up after last period tomorrow.”

Niles and Odin give each other withering looks that inform Leo their argument has only been delayed out of polite deference to the fact that Leo doesn’t want to get dragged into it. “It’ll probably be fun,” Odin says. “Keep an open mind, you never know, you might enjoy it.”

“I somehow doubt that,” Leo replies, and then opens his Ziploc bag of cherry tomatoes in the hopes that his favorite snack can salvage the day.

 

 

 

During the lacrosse scrimmage’s halftime break, Leo realizes something crucial: “I barely know what’s happening,” he says. “But I suppose Ephraim is scoring a lot of points.”

“Yes, almost as if he’s trying to impress somebody,” Niles replies lightly.

“And what do you mean by that?” Leo says.

“Leo, did you notice that a few times, after Ephraim scored, he would  _ very deliberately _ look in this direction?” Niles asks.

“Yes,” Leo answers.

“Okay, and then what would he do after that?” Niles continues.

Leo frowns. “I don’t like that I’m being quizzed on this,” he replies. “He smiles and gestures towards this direction. Waving or giving a thumbs-up or something similar.”

“Alright, and how did that make you feel,” Niles says.

It made Leo feel extremely confused, as is the norm for how he feels whenever interacting with Ephraim, because he hasn’t the slightest idea as to why Ephraim seems to be pointedly paying attention to him. In fact, he doesn’t have much of an idea as to why  _ anybody _ would single him out for attention, except maybe as an indirect way of getting his older siblings’ attention, which has happened to him enough times that he’s always suspicious of the possibility existing. He’s just self-aware enough to want to chalk it up to middle child syndrome, but the sheer quantity of trophies and certificates his older siblings have brought home have firmly convinced him that his position isn’t a matter of neuroses firing too hard and is instead a rational position to take on the reality of his life.

Still, he supposes that when he temporarily entertains the possibility that Ephraim doesn’t have any ulterior motives, it does make him feel light in the head and tight in the chest and rather pleased with himself – at least, until he promptly squashes that feeling underfoot and tells himself not to imagine strange things.

Niles clears his throat to inform Leo that the length of his silence is getting awkward. “It doesn’t make me feel anything in particular,” Leo blurts out.

“Leo,” Niles says. “You’re amazing in many different ways.”

“Why does that not sound like a compliment?” Leo asks, and then sighs.

Thankfully, the game resumes and allows Leo to escape the conversation by insisting that he’s trying to figure out how lacrosse works through observation. Leo does at least understand enough to know that Ephraim is most likely a very good offensive player, is almost definitely more aggressive than the field average, and is far more flexible than Leo previously imagined he would be. The game ends a few minutes after one of the other home team’s attackers scores one last time – the final score is a near landslide victory for their school.

There’s something a bit strange and voyeuristic, Leo thinks, about watching how a team reacts after a game. He’d always thought so, ever since watching his older brother Xander after his soccer games – it feels personal in a raw, unrefined sort of way, like the emotions from both the winners and the losers are so open that even from the outside looking in, a spectator like Leo can tell how genuine those emotions are and how deep they run, even as the mere spectator is unable to completely share in them.

It makes Leo feel uncomfortable, like something’s pressing down on his stomach. He begins to turn away and get up to go, but Niles reaches out and grabs him by the upper arm. “Hey, he’s calling for you,” Niles says.

Leo glances down at the field. Indeed, Ephraim is clearly making some sweeping  _ come over here _ gestures in their general direction. “That’s…” he begins to say, but Niles cuts him off before he even gets into denying it.

“I don’t see anybody else reacting, so I’m pretty sure that’s directed at you,” Niles points out. “Come on, I’ll even stand awkwardly a few paces away waiting for you. You know me, Leo. I  _ hate _ doing stuff like that.”

It’s true, Leo knows that Niles thinks engaging in social niceties like that should just be taken as signs of weakness, and has unironically referred to it as ‘pack behavior’ more than once. “Fine,” Leo says, “but let me preface this with the fact that I doubt I’m going to enjoy this.”

Leo makes his way down the stands, towards the edge of the field where Ephraim and his team are standing in a loose circle, clearly a group, but not huddled so close as to exclude all others. In fact, Leo’s not the only non-teammate to have come down from the bleachers – there are a few others who’ve come up to chat with the players as they do their cool-downs and change out of their uniforms, but they seem comfortable in the idea that they’ll be accepted in, unlike Leo.

For a few moments, Leo makes a valiant attempt to suppress his fight-or-flight instinct. Then, just as the primate part of his brain settles on ‘flight’, Ephraim calls out, “Leo, you made it,” casually but firmly hooks an arm around Leo’s waist, and reels Leo in towards the perimeter of the circle, rescuing Leo from floating awkwardly just outside of it. Leo looks up, and he’s pretty sure his face must be arranged in an expression of utter bewilderment at what is happening to him, but Ephraim just grins and asks, “So, did you enjoy yourself? You did stay for the entire game, after all.”

“ _ Enjoy _ would be a strong word for how I felt,” Leo replies. “I didn’t feel it was an hour wasted, at least.”

“Well, I count that as a win,” Ephraim says. 

“Hey, is this that freshman you keep mentioning?” asks one of the other players, tilting his head slightly. “I’m Chrom, nice to meet you. And you’re Leo, right?”

“That’s right,” Leo replies, mentally putting off the task of extensively pondering what exactly Ephraim is telling others if he’s bringing up Leo’s name on a semi-regular basis in favor of putting on his ‘ _ Yes, I am a well-adjusted teenager capable of talking to people I don’t know in a sociable way _ ’ face. “Nice to meet you as well. I hope you’re taking anything he says about me with a grain of salt, though.”

“Well,” Chrom says, and then glances up at Ephraim and openly smirks for a second. “In a sense, yeah, I do.”

“Hey now,” Ephraim replies. “I don’t say anything about how  _ you _ talk about Robin.”

“Okay, point taken,” Chrom concedes. 

It’s at this point that it occurs to Leo that Ephraim’s hand has yet to leave his waist, and they’re standing  _ very _ close together – close enough that Leo can smell Ephraim, and is a little grossed out by himself because he  _ doesn’t _ think that Ephraim smells that gross. Then again, Ephraim’s already changed out of his uniform and has probably wiped off most of his sweat, so that what’s left behind is an undertone of whatever deodorant he wears along with his natural scent. Leo considers at this point whether it would be more or less awkward to extract himself, but finding nothing overtly objectionable about the situation, he decides the path of least resistance is the best option here. 

“So, is lacrosse supposed to be that aggressive? Or is that just you?” Leo asks.

“That’s just me, to be honest,” Ephraim replies frankly. “Well, it’s not like I’m aggressive off the field… at least, I don’t think so. But I do like competition.”

“Well, that’s exactly how you play chess too, so I’m not that surprised,” Leo tells him.

Ephraim laughs. “Using my own lines against me now?”

“I don’t hear you denying it’s true,” Leo retorts.

“Okay, so you have a point,” Ephraim concedes.

Just then, the coach yells at the team to circle up, eliciting a few good-natured groans and sighs from a few of the players. “Post-scrimmage review,” Ephraim explains briefly, retracting his arm and gently patting Leo on the small of his back. “But hey, if you didn’t die of boredom watching, maybe you can come by for a real game when the season starts up?”

“I’ll think about it,” Leo replies evasively. He glances off to where Niles is, as promised, waiting for him. He promptly looks away when Niles starts making some sort of gesture with his hands, choosing to remain deliberately ignorant to whatever Niles is attempting to communicate to him.

“Alright,” Ephraim says cheerfully. “See you next week, then.”

“Right, see you,” Leo echoes, and promptly makes his escape, darting off with all the stealth he can muster to meet back up with Niles.

“So,” Niles begins to say.

“Do not,” Leo cuts in. “Just no. Don’t. Seriously.”

Niles sighs and shakes his head. “Only for you, Leo,” he says.

  
  
  


 

The weekend passes in a strange blur. Leo does his homework unusually quickly, only for him to realize that he’s messed it up almost completely upon checking his answers. Then he spends a few hours at the family dining room table staring fretfully at chess configurations that he sets up on the board Xander got him for his birthday two years ago – the board and pieces are beautifully handcrafted, and Leo has always had a special fondness for the way the knights and the bishops look. He ends up taking more time to consider what exactly it is he likes about the carved pieces than the problems he’s supposed to be solving, and only stops when Camilla interrupts.

“It’s almost time for dinner, Leo,” she says. “Clean up, please.”

“Right,” Leo replies, beginning to hastily shove the pieces back into their velvet-lined bags.

Camilla hovers over him for a few moments. “Leo… are you ill?” she asks, gingerly placing a hand over his forehead.

“No, I’m not,” he replies. He considers for a few moments batting her hand away, but he’s certain that’d be more trouble than it's worth.

“Oh,” Camilla says, smiling slightly as she retracts her hand. “I see. Good for you, Leo.”

“What does  _ that _ mean?” he asks.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replies. 

Naturally, Leo begins worrying about it.

 

  
  
  


The chess club meets two lunch periods a week, and twice more after school. Lunchtime meetings are generally for looking at board set-ups with certain criteria – attain checkmate in so many moves, use the rook at least so many times, so on and so forth. After-school meetings are for playing full games with each other. Ephraim, against all expectations, has been dutifully attending each and every one of them, even though he makes it very clear that he considers the lunchtime meetings a necessary hardship to endure for the sake of being a proper club member. 

The fact that Ephraim is inexplicably still around at all bothers Leo, even though common sense wants to point out to them that Ephraim is actually quite good at chess. All this boils over on a Tuesday as the two of them pore over a board set-up that needs solving in exactly six moves: Leo opens his mouth and realizes words are coming out without him thinking about them hard enough. “If you’re in pre-season now, then the actual lacrosse season is starting soon,” he points out. “So are you quitting the chess club?”

Ephraim is silent for a moment, then he looks up from the board. “Yeah, I guess so. I might come by during lunch sometimes, though,” he says.

Leo frowns. “Then what was the point?”

“What was the what now?” Ephraim asks, sounding as confused as Leo has felt for weeks now.

“If you were going to quit before long, then I think you shouldn’t have bothered joining in the first place,” Leo says, keeping his tone purposefully even and prim. “I… could have been practicing with somebody who wasn’t going to treat it like a half-baked sort of deal and leave at their own convenience.”

“That’s not very fair,” Ephraim replies, a little too quickly, a little too heated. “I take the club seriously, you know. I take  _ you _ seriously, as a person.”

Leo doesn’t reply and instead fixates his gaze on the chess pieces between them. Ephraim presses on, undaunted. “What’s this really about, Leo?” he asks. 

There’s a pause, and then Leo sighs sharply. “I just said how I felt,” he replies. “That’s all there is to it.”

“No way, I’m calling bullshit,” Ephraim says immediately. “This isn’t like you at all. Something else is bothering you, isn’t it?”

“What’s  _ like me _ supposed to be like, anyway?” Leo retorts. 

“Well,” Ephraim replies, after a beat. “I have a hard time understanding that too. But I’m not really the best at reading others to begin with… anyway, I do know that whoever you are, I care about you… and I like spending time with you, so isn’t that enough? For me to want to know why you’re dodging the question when I ask what’s bothering you?”

Leo has a brief moment of lucidity where he realizes clearly that he’s doing exactly that thing that Niles does when he opens his mouth and something very deliberately, uncomfortably sexual comes out. He wants to put Ephraim off somehow, to keep Ephraim from digging deeper and getting close to how Leo knows he is at his core instead of the image he tries to project.  _ But that means I care what he thinks about me, doesn’t it _ , Leo thinks to himself, and promptly shuts down that entire line of reasoning altogether.

He opens his mouth, but he can’t even get a kneejerk, unfiltered reaction to come out. His mind is processing too fast for that, too filled with conflicting thoughts that cancel each other out and leave him squirming desperately to grasp some sort of meaning behind all of this, so he can understand why he even picked this stupid fight to begin with, or perhaps why Ephraim is being so dogged about wanting to know what’s wrong.

“If you don’t want to talk to me about it, that’s fine too,” Ephraim finally says. “But seriously, if something’s bothering you, I hope you can at least talk to  _ somebody _ about it. I think it’ll make you feel better.”

“Sure,” Leo replies automatically, just relieved that Ephraim has provided him an out from the conversation. 

In mutual silence, they stare at the chessboard for the rest of the lunch period. Unsurprisingly, neither of them solve it.

  
  
  


 

Leo chooses his favorite coping mechanism: ignoring the problem and pretending it doesn’t exist. It goes swimmingly for exactly a day and a half, until Camilla unexpectedly accosts him in one of the school’s study rooms during one of his free periods as Leo does his math homework and mentally debates whether or not he should go to the after-school chess club meeting that afternoon. 

“There you are, Leo. I thought you’d be here,” Camilla says. “Here, I’ve brought one of my classmates, Eirika. She wants to speak to you.”

Leo looks up fully from his calculus textbook and blinks a few times, because the girl she’s with has such a strong resemblance to Ephraim that it’s clear they must be siblings, and it occurs to him that he never actually knew that Ephraim had any. Nor does he ever remember talking to Ephraim about his own, for that matter.

“Thanks again, Camilla,” Eirika says, smiling briefly at the other girl. “Sorry for involving you in this…”

“No, not at all,” Camilla replies, returning the smile. “I was thinking it was time that I did something as his older sister anyway. Leo, be a dear and listen to what Eirika has to say, alright?”

“You’re making it sound like I don’t normally give people common courtesy like that,” Leo mutters. Camilla’s smile doesn’t even waver for a moment as she reaches over and gives him a pointedly rough head ruffle. 

“I’ll leave you two to it, then,” she says sweetly, and disappears off before Leo can open his mouth to protest.

Eirika smooths her skirt out and takes a seat at the table across from Leo. “I’m Ephraim’s twin sister,” she explains. “My name is Eirika. I’ve come to apologize on his behalf, because I have a feeling he must have done something to upset you without knowing what it is he did.”

“That’s alright,” Leo replies, mostly because he’s unsure what else to say.

“You know… my brother is very rough around the edges,” she continues, eyes crinkling at the edges slightly, as if talking about Ephraim makes her quite happy. “He doesn’t have a subtle bone in his body, and he’s bad at expressing how he feels on top of that, which is sort of a tragic combination, isn’t it?”

“Well, he’s not  _ that _ bad,” Leo says. “For the most part.”

“For the most part,” she agrees. “He tends to have his heart in the right place, after all.”

Leo sighs, but replies, “Yes, that I can agree with.”

“Normally I won’t interfere with his business, but… he’s been quite worried for the last two days. I haven’t seen him get so worked up in quite some time. To tell the truth… well, he won’t like me telling you this, but I think my brother has one thing he truly regrets.” Eirika looks Leo straight in the eye, and something in her gaze refuses Leo the right to look away. “There was a time when a dear friend of his needed his help, but he didn’t realize it until after the fact. Since then, he’s tried to be more sensitive to that sort of thing, although it doesn’t come naturally to him, so… if you could find it in your heart, please try to forgive him for being awkward about it.”

“No, it’s fine,” Leo mumbles, then clears his throat so he can enunciate more clearly: “I’m the awkward one anyway.”

Eirika laughs gently, but it’s a kind sound, so Leo can tell it isn’t at his expense. “I can see why my brother is fond of you,” she tells him. “But anyway, that’s not all I came here to say. I just wanted to tell you… if my brother says something  _ very _ stupid to you, you let me know, alright? I’ll knock him a good one for you.” 

“It’s fine, I’ll knock him around myself,” Leo replies, hoping that the inflection of the words comes out right.

He figures it must have, because Eirika laughs again, in that way that sounds almost like wind chimes in a light breeze. “Again, I see why he likes you,” she says, getting up. “I’ll leave to your work, then. It was nice talking to you, Leo.”

“It was nice talking to you too,” he says, and he offers a small but genuine smile to match hers.

Eirika’s face looks the most similar to Ephraim’s when she smiles, he thinks. He decides not to skip chess practice after all.

  
  
  


 

“You’re here,” Leo blurts out when Ephraim shows up after school – he’s a few minutes late, and the last one to make it, but the point is that he shows up at all.

“Here I am,” Ephraim says. “So are you.”

“This is getting to be a conversations of truisms too quickly,” Leo replies.

Ephraim gives him a lopsided sort of smile. “Looks like everybody else is already paired off. Should we play each other as usual?”

“The board’s already set up,” Leo says. “You play white this time.”

Ephraim sits down and immediately moves one of his pawns forward. “I’m sorry,” he says, without preamble. “I feel like I said too much last time.”

“No, I should be the one to say that,” Leo replies, before he moves one of his own pawns forward. “So… I’m sorry as well.”

Awkward silence sets in. Ephraim and Leo make their next five moves in complete quiet. Leo can visibly see Ephraim struggling to put into words something about how he feels, which is sort of relieving, because Leo’s also struggling to do the same. 

Leo picks up one of his knights and temporarily distracts himself with the game, promising himself that he’ll go back to fighting to place words to his feelings when it’s Ephraim’s turn again.

“Do you want to go out on a date sometime?” Ephraim asks. Leo promptly drops his knight, which knocks over several other pieces.

“ _ What, _ ” Leo says.

Ephraim isn’t looking at the mess of their board – he’s looking straight at Leo, compelling him to gaze back, just as when he’d talked to Eirika earlier. “That’s not a joke, if you were wondering,” he says. “I like you a lot, in  _ that  _ way. At least, I think I do.”

“You think you do,” Leo replies faintly. 

“I mean, I wouldn’t say romantic sentiment is my strong suit, so I’m trying to figure it out myself?” Ephraim replies, sounding a little defensive. But then he sighs and unfurrows his brow before he says, “But I do know that I feel like I would’ve regretted not asking.”

Leo narrows his eyes. “Let’s finish the game first,” he says, picking up some of the pieces he’d accidentally knocked out of place and returning them to where they last stood. 

“Fine with me,” Ephraim replies.

The game resumes.

 

  
  
  


At the end of the match, Leo’s win-loss record to Ephraim remains against him at 8 to 9, but the number is up from 7 to 9. 

“It’s your checkmate,” Ephraim says, leaning back in his seat. “You really went all-out on me, didn’t you? There was hardly any defensive play from you today.”

“I just played like  _ you _ normally do,” Leo replies.

Ephraim laughs. “When you put it that way, I can’t complain, can I?”

Leo smiles smugly and says, “Why do you think I phrase it like that in the first place?”

There’s a pause. “Well, to be honest, I was thinking about doing something dramatic like leaning over and kissing you if I won, but I had a feeling that you would hate doing that where others could see,” Ephraim admits. “Also, I had a feeling halfway through I was going to lose.”

“You’re right about both of those things,” Leo says. He folds his hands carefully in front of him, suppressing a sigh, in case it sounds more scathing than he intends it to. “I’ll admit that I’ll miss spending this time together when you start practices again.”

“Yeah. So will I,” Ephraim agrees.

“Also, if you really do like me in… _ that _ way, it explains a lot of things I’ve been confused on,” Leo continues. “It makes more sense than you pulling a long con that ends with me getting shoved into a locker, at any rate.”

Ephraim gives him a mildly bewildered look. “Um, what?” he asks. “Do people really do that sort of thing?”

Leo ignores him. “And I suppose I… I do believe you, when you said last time that you care about me,” he says. “I know I have a bit of a difficult personality, so that does mean something significant to me. That said, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t verbally agree with the difficult personality part.”

“You’re not difficult,” Ephraim replies. “I mean that. I get the sense that you give yourself a hard time more than anybody else does.”

There’s a pause.

“I thought you said you weren’t good at reading people,” Leo mutters.

Ephraim laughs slightly. “I try, on occasion,” he quips. “I also get the sense you aren’t really sure how to handle being doted on, but just so you know, I do plan on doting on you  _ plenty _ . If you’re okay with it, that is.” 

“I’m ignoring that part and going on,” Leo announces, even though he knows that proves Ephraim’s point entirely. “To get to the heart of the matter. I’m fine with going on a date and seeing how things progress from there… I suppose.”

Ephraim smiles with his whole face: his cheekbones rise, his eyes seem to shine, and the sheer extent to which he seems  _ happy _ is almost overwhelming. “Thanks,” he says. “You know, for giving it a shot. I can’t promise much, but I’ll try and make sure you don’t regret it.”

“It’s just a date,” Leo replies faintly, attempting to distract himself by beginning to clean up the board. 

“I’ll text you with plans, then,” Ephraim says after Leo’s returned the chess set back to its storage location and the both of them have picked up their bags to head out. “Unless you just want to get together and play chess?”

“No, try something more creative,” Leo replies, resisting the urge to roll their eyes as they leave the classroom.

Ephraim laughs. “Got it,” he says. Leo watches as Ephraim looks down either direction of the hallway, and his body begins to register what’s about to happen before his mind can catch up: he steps inward just as Ephraim reaches around to hold him by the waist with one arm, tilting his head down to catch Leo’s lips in a kiss as he tugs Leo in to hold him close. Leo relaxes instinctively, letting all the tension out of his body so that the only thing he can register is how pleasant it is to be able to lean back and feel Ephraim bracing his weight, how dizzyingly nice it is to  _ kiss _ him –  hesitantly, he places a hand at Ephraim’s upper arm as if holding on while he’s taken for a ride. The fact that he  _ can _ hold on leaves him a little light-headed too, and self-satisfied that there’s a reassuring physicality to ground him to the fact that this is reality.

Leo doesn’t even realize he’s closed his eyes until the kiss is over – he blinks a few times, wondering if the school’s lighting was always so bright – and Ephraim’s right there, cheeks lightly flushed and smiling like a mischievous child who knows exactly how much he can get away with. “You’d only hate it if others could see it happening, right?” he asks, a tiny bit breathless.

“Don’t push your luck,” Leo replies, but he’s almost certain that he’s smiling too.

“Oh,” Ephraim says wryly, “in that case, I’d better not do it again.”

“Well, just once more,” Leo quickly concedes, and tugs Ephraim down to kiss him once more – there’s a different sort of thrill in knowing that his advances will certainly be met and returned, he realizes, that’s completely separate from knowing that Ephraim wants to kiss him. Both, he decides, are very nice feelings to hang onto. 

This time, though, Ephraim loosens his hold around Leo’s waist after they separate. “Don’t think I won’t make out with you in a school hallway if we keep going on like this,” he says, but he takes Leo’s hand into his and holds it gently for a few moments before letting go. 

Leo, though, reaches out to take Ephraim’s hand back. “Making out, no. But this much is fine, I think,” he says.

Ephraim smiles again. “Alright,” he replies, “you do that, then.”

And so Leo does. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you pay me $10, I won't write Leo and Ephraim making out that's how reverse psychology works right


End file.
